MatSE is proud to announce our new Knights of St. Patrick: Priya Bharath and Talen Sehgal! Well-deserved! The Knights of St. Patrick Award is presented to College of Engineering students who exhibit leadership, excellence in character, and exceptional contribution to the College and its students.
Priya is a senior studying Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Technology and Management.
Priya’s deepest involvement has been on the Engineering Council, in which she serves as Vice President. Through this role, she has grown the council to become a platform for cross-RSO learning between the 90 members, recruited over 10 new societies and organized a RSO recruitment event for over 500 students. She has also served as Head Engineering Learning Assistant, working to improve the freshman experience as well as train new ELAs. For three years, she has been a director in the central committee of Engineering Open House, an outreach event that invites over 20,000 visitors to campus each spring. Here, she has coordinated over 300 volunteers, handled equipment for over 250 exhibits and managed facilities across 27 sites. She currently serves as Director of Internal Relations for the 100th EOH. Priya has also been a soprano for the Women’s Glee Club for one year, and dancer on Legend Dance Company for four.
Professionally, Priya spent a year conducting biomaterials research with the Leal Group, eventually co-authoring a paper in Materials Horizon. She was also part of the Autonomous Materials Systems Laboratory her junior year, assisting in the research of transient polymers. Beyond engineering, as a consultant in Illinois Business Consulting, she and her team worked to propose how utility companies could penetrate the dark fiber leasing industry in the USA. She spent a summer interning at Illinois Ventures, where she identified startups and potential investors for the organization’s pipeline. She is also currently a Program Ambassador for the Hoeft Technology and Management program.
Priya would like to give her deepest thanks to her parents who are back home in Malaysia, and a shout out to her friends and mentors for their support."
Talen Sehgal is a junior majoring in Materials Science and Engineering. He was born and spent most of his life in Singapore, but finished high school in Princeton, New Jersey.
Talen is very involved with the Materials Science and Engineering department on campus and its affiliated groups. He has sat on the Keramos Honors Fraternity executive board since his sophomore year where is currently the Herald. He teaches hands-on ceramic processing to Keramos members and helps oversee society membership.Talen also helps teach the Junior Laboratory classes, MSE 307 and 308. When he isn’t playing with clay, he assists with Orange & Blue Days and other recruiting events, giving prospective freshmen a chance to learn about what it means to be a MatSE major. Outside of the department, he is an executive board member of the Rube Goldberg Society and helps lead a team of students in creating a Rube Goldberg machine for the annual national competition.
During his summers so far, Talen has interned at two different companies, Novocure Ltd and the Chevron Corporation. He has used his problem solving and materials knowledge to improve safety in future major capital projects with practical price considerations. This upcoming summer, Talen will head back to the Chevron Corporation to work at their Salt Lake City refinery. He is very excited to get his steel toe boots back on.
Talen enjoys emulating MacGyver and solving problems in his spare time. He also enjoys running, knitting, vegetarian cooking, and ridiculous socks.
Finally, Talen would like to thank his incredible friends, wonderful mentors, and loving family for their constant support through his somewhat compulsive desire to put everything in Excel spreadsheets. He would like to extend a special thank you to his mother and father, Lisa and Sanjay Sehgal, for showing him the world and for teaching him to be the best friend he can be.